Who's in Charge Around Here?
by mandassina
Summary: Suzie gets a tour of the Hub.


**Disclaimer:**_ Torchwood_, its characters and settings are property of Russell T. Davies and BBC Wales. This story was written for entertainment only and not for profit.

_Who's in Charge Here?_

"Look all you want," Jack said as the flagstone of the invisible lift settled into place. "But don't touch anything."

Archie harrumphed, and Suzie gave him an eye-roll that said, _Yeah, right_, but she obediently put her hands in her pockets. Jack had to work to suppress a smile. With her smooth, olive skin, full lips, dark almond eyes, and luxurious black curls, she was most definitely an Italian Costello. Stepping off the lift, she went first to the armoury, which was directly in front of her.

"Looks like your weapons locker is well stocked," she said. Then arching her eyebrow at Jack, she said, "Though perhaps someone needs to learn to put his toys back when he's done playing with them." Peering more closely at the items behind the glass, she chuckled and said, "And it looks like you need some help sorting the big-boy toys from the kid's stuff, too."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Jack asked.

Smirking, Suzie indicated with a jut of her chin an object that looked like a cross between a set of brass knuckles and a dead-man's switch. "That's a Ke Chedani family archive," she said.

"A what?"

"The Ke Chedani are a teddy bear-like species . . ."

"Space faring people, mastered time travel using Ikkaban technology around 3345, I know," Jack said impatiently. He was used to giving lectures on aliens, not getting them. "But what is a family archive?"

"It's sort of a digital scrapbook, video camera, family tree, bedtime story teller, and light show all in one," Suzie explained. "When a couple finds out they're pregnant, the father builds or purchases a family archive. When the birth is announced, he includes a transmission code that allows family, friends, and loved ones to load holographic recordings of them sharing their favourite stories, songs, and memories onto the device. A month later, it is given to the child at the formal naming ceremony as his first gift. Every time the baby squeezes it, shakes it, or pushes one of the buttons it plays back one of the recordings. Throughout the child's life, he can fill it with his own memories and special moments and then pass them on to his children. When their curious, wandering nature takes the Ke Chedani far from home, their family archives keep them grounded in their culture. You really should make every effort to return it. It's like having someone's family Bible."

Jack gave Archie an incredulous look. The old Scotsman just shrugged and grinned.

"How do you know all this?" Jack demanded.

Suzie shrugged. "Met one, about six years ago. I was assigned to chat it up whilst the UNIT techs dismantled and reassembled its ship under the pretence of trying to repair it."

"UNIT?"

"I'm a free-lancer, Jack," Suzie reminded him. "I work for whom I want, when I want."

She moved to the workspace to her right and frowned at the clutter, then did an about-face and climbed the steps to the computer work stations on the main deck. Archie and Jack followed behind her, and she didn't see the glare Jack shot Archie or the shrug Archie gave Jack in return.

Suzie barely spared the office a glance before she walked onto the gantry in the autopsy bay and gasped in horror and the several-hours-dead alien on the autopsy table.

"I'll bet that was already dead when you found it, wasn't it?" Suzie asked.

"How did you know?" Jack wondered.

"It's an Owse," she told him. "They're sensitive to temporal and reality shifts. Poor thing probably died of shock the moment it was pulled into the Rift." Turning to face him she said vehemently, "You have got to get it into cold storage right away."

"It hasn't been autopsied yet," he told her.

"Doesn't matter," she insisted heading uninvited down into the bay. "I'm sure I can get the UNIT files to tell you all about them. Right now, the only thing you need to know is that while it takes some time for them to start decomposing, when they do go, it happens all at once. That thing will put off enough noxious gasses to kill every oxygen breather in this facility. Since there is no telling how long ago it died, you have no time to lose."

She snapped on a pair of gloves, and then rummaged about for a body bag. "Are you going to help me or just stand the gawping?" she demanded, glaring up at Jack.

Archie strangled a chuckle into a cough as a startled Jack fairly flew down the steps to assist.

FIN


End file.
